King of Code

King of Code is an intriguing story filled with secrets, doubts, betrayal and a bit of craziness.

“she was a hacker, a terrorist, my captor, and she was withholding information I needed.”

Taylor Harden created an infallible system that he was willing to bet could not be hacked.

Harper Barrington who also goes by Harper Watson locked down Taylor’s system which led him to her. She led him to her town that was suffering economically. Harper feels responsible for her town’s downfall. Now that she has Taylor’s attention she has demands that she wants fulfilled before giving him the codes he needs to release his system.

The story is told in Taylor’s POV leaving you constantly speculating. It’s a real page turner. However Taylor is not my favorite hero. At times he comes off uncomfortably aggressive. He’s cocky with an enormous ego. From the start he lacked respect for women. He didn’t hire women, or think highly of them. When it came to the hacker who breached his system he couldn’t fathom it could be a woman. Harper gave him a lesson in humility. 4 Stars

2.5 stars
This is a tough review for me because CD Reiss has been one of my favorite one-click authors for years. I have literally devoured everything she’s written, but King of Code, really missed the mark for me.

On the upside, the story was interesting and you could really tell she had to do a lot of research to get the jargon down. To make this believable you’d have to be able to sound like an IT geek, however the story moved so slowly through the first 60% of the book that I found myself constantly checking to see how many more chapters I had to go before I was through. It’s never happened before, usually I’m clamoring for more!!

The two MCs, Taylor and Harper gave me whiplash, do you hate me…are you playing me…what’s your game…do you love me?? and they vacillated so much through the hate, distrust, secrets and sacrifice that it was hard to settle into the story. Maybe it was part of the plan…keep the reader guessing but the storyline wasn’t strong enough to make me delight in it, the guessing part.

There were some delightful side characters and Reiss has plans to tell their stories, so I guess you could call it a series, but I believe the intent is each can be read as a standalone.

“An inconsequential speck on a tiny boat surrounded by continuous horizon, humbled in the sea of her generosity.”

There is no question that this is a super sexy, downright delicious love story and romance for the ages. After all, we are reading a new release from C.D. Reiss. The romantic tension is spine tingling and the eroticism will make you lose your mind. So, if entertainment is all you are after, this book will rate up there with the best you have read. But…There. Is. More.
So much more for the reader to fill their mind, heart and soul up with the food only an artist can serve up to them. This book is much like a multifaceted gemstone that bends and reflects back the light. We follow Taylor from the criminal world of the Black Hat hacker on the dark web to the young “savant” on the “cusp” of being a titan of industry, a King. In the very beginning of the book, Taylor is almost a “cliche’ of a cliche”. He is a misogynist who protects “his guys” from the IQ degradation caused by working with woman. He only hires one for his company and she is for mundane tasks and convenience when he feels like having a “good one” in the closet. His attitudes were fostered by his upbringing in numerous ways and reinforced by the cultural denial about the possible heights of the female brain IQ. In meeting the brilliant, beautiful and blonde Harper, much of the hubris Taylor exhibits because of his brilliance and that he thinks he has achieved his success solely as a result of said brilliance is dissipated in the gaze of Harper’s multicolored eyes and grasp of her bandaged hands.
Yet, dear reader, this story is even more than this. Beyond Taylor’s “rusting” misogyny is his fear that without the limits he feels he can impose in computer code, life and his belief of what position and place in history he holds as an innovator that changed the face of human society, even human civilization… he is insignificant. In his deep understanding of the nature of things, he feels his insignificance and his true irrelevance in the face of the infinite. Even King David, the ancient biblical psalmist knew a thing or two about infinity (Psalm 139). This ancient King had a anchor Taylor had yet to find.
Harper shares with her sister a generational guilt perpetuated by the greed of her parents in their using up of the people and the natural resources of their small town. Harper feels a desperate kind of loneliness. Since childhood she has been separate and apart from her contemporaries, her parents, and the men in her town. Her contemporaries and her school teachers made the assumption she was intellectual challenged because she was too bright to be understood. Her parents called her away from MIT to take care of her ailing father. The men in her town will not touch her. They view her as a rare treasure to be guarded. The absolute worst profession to even acknowledge her presence as a serious mind, let alone a genius, is the world of MIT and Silicon Valley. Out of desperation for her situation she pulls a daring and stunning online hack of Taylor’s game changing computer code. Her town is dying and Harper needs to bring attention to the town and maybe a little for herself?
The resulting fireworks that ensue between Taylor and Harper are breathtaking to watch, read about and imagine. Then the story enlarges itself. The reader along with Taylor falls a little in love with this town without trying to blame it or cure it. The very same rust that is evident in the whole town flows in the blood of both our lovers. (Interesting to note that the same Fe2O3 that sustains our life in our blood stream is responsible for so much decay and economic damage.) “It’s about the maintenance.” As much as this is so, he knows he cannot stay and it is not clear if Taylor can ever leave.
This writer has so much to say about what she sees. The scenes Ms. Reiss creates in the reader’s mind are beautifully cinematic in scope. To this reader, every word was nuanced with meaning, a comment on her observations of our society even using the languages of computer hackers to entertain, educate and serve up the metaphoric references.
I don’t think I have ever loved two main romantic characters more. I love Taylor because he shook off his sense of importance and self-esteem rooted in his intelligence and bowed before his queen. Harper, because I understood her, loved her and was thrilled at her accomplishments but I was even more impressed with her generous heart. With her, Taylor was at peace within the nature of the infinite…and that nature is Love.
The little town broke my heart for very personal reasons. I remember flying away once like the birds flew south over this town. I remember seeing the “rust” of my hometown upon my return. I was neither smart enough or important enough to change the way it was. If I dare say aloud the unsaid thought Taylor had to anyone but myself, I would feel ashamed.
“Change . Grow . Learn . Get it right the hundredth time if you had to.” These words are difficult to tell yourself. I cannot even imagine uttering them aloud to anyone who has been broken by life even if this is the only sure cure.
I am grateful for the experience of reading this tour de force. I can imagine an entire scholastic seminar dedicated to the thematic presentations in this book, and still, it is a book about a burning, unceasing, sacrificing , and beautiful love filled with all of the emotion that moves a romance reader. I literally am trembling with anticipation as this series continues with the stories of characters introduced to us in this book.
This is a must read and and definitely needs to go immediately to top of your TBR pile.
It will lift you up and tap into the knowing in your heart and soul about the nature of love and the will to keep loving…keep living.